LENTEN MESSAGE

Does a fish know water is wet?   It’s in it all the time, swimming around in it all day.   Does it take its environment for granted?  “Oh, yeah… water.  I know it’s there, just haven’t thought about it in a while.”    

What’s the “water” in our lives?  What are those things in our lives that are always there, that are fundamentally present, that we’d be lost without… but that we don’t often think about as we go about our business? 

Let me ask you this – Why do we get up every day?   I mean, in the deeper sense.   What’s the meaning of our lives?  What’s the meaning for our lives?    Those are big questions… perhaps the most fundamental questions. 

I think those questions are often the “water” in our lives.  I think we do have a sense in some way that there is meaning… that we do have a purpose… but we often don’t take time to critically re-assess the direction of our lives until/unless something forces us to. 

Many years ago, I heard a radio program about “Making Plans For The End of Life”.  The piece started with the story of the death of Ted Kennedy.  A woman called in and told her husband’s story.  She said he’d been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer.  She said that prior to this, he wasn’t much for “I love you’s”, but after this diagnosis, she said he changed. 

According to her, he looked at his life, assessed what he’d done up to that point from a perspective of ultimate meaning and asked, “What have I been doing?  This means nothing.  It’s so simple to be happy!”  She said he told her he loved her much more than before, he spent a lot of time with people he cared about, calling family and friends that lived far away.  She said “his true heart came alive”, that he’d lived from that point almost in a state of grace.

Now I know that there are some people for whom this just NOT on their radar.  I get that.  But don’t we all look for something that motivates us to get up in the morning?  It doesn’t have to be as grand as working to end global poverty.  It could be as “humble” as just working more at showing the people around us we love and appreciate them.  etc.   But I wonder for how many of us, this is just the unrecognized “water” in our lives.  

Eric Liddell, one of the characters in the movie Chariots of Fire, a film based on a true story, talks about that which provides him meaning in one of the final scenes in the movie.  “He has a serious meeting with his brother and sister. He tells them that he has decided to return to China in the Missionary Service but for now he wants to devote all his efforts to running. He explains: ‘I believe God made me for a purpose. But he also made me fast, and when I run I feel his pleasure. To win is to honor him.’”   [From Film review by Frederick and Maryann Brussat]

What are you here for?  Why did God make you?  What’s your purpose?  Maybe there’s more than one, depending on what stage of life we’re in.  But it can’t hurt to think about it… to give this “water” some notice.   It can’t hurt to touch base with God and our deeper selves in this way… once in a while.

Peace